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a culture of service...
August, 2011
© 2011, Hardy Diagnostics,
all rights reserved
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You don't dress like they did in 1968.
So why are you still culturing like they
did in 1968?
The year was 1968 and bell bottoms and tie dye was all the rage. Also in 1968, Hektoen Enteric Agar was introduced as a replacement for SS Agar for enteric pathogen screens. HE Agar may select for most Salmonella and Shigella (high sensitivity), but it also produces many false positives (low specificity).
The year is now 2011, and times have changed. Hardy Diagnostics has introduced a better way to screen for enteric pathogens with HardyCHROM SS. This chromogenic media for Salmonella and Shigella is both sensitive and specific.
The patented formula is the only one that gives you chromogenic results for both Salmonella and Shigella. Once you make the switch, you will no longer waste precious time working up false positives!
More information...
Would you like to give it try?
Ask for samples.
HardyCHROM SS, Cat. no. G327
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Brainteasers
Use it or lose it!
Get a cranial
workout today.
Enter here
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How much is
one trillion?
The United States federal government currently owes $14.7 trillion dollars. Since that number is difficult to fathom, let's see what one trillion looks like in every day terms...
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Trillion = 1,000,000,000,000 (one with 12 zeros)
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If you were alive when Christ was born and you spent $1 million every single day since that point, you still would not have spent $1 trillion dollars by now - you would have spent about $734 billion.
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If you spent one dollar every second, it would take you almost 32,000 years to spend a trillion dollars.
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One trillion dollars today would allow you to buy Coca Cola, Apple, IBM, Bank of America, Ford, General Motors, Toyota, Motorola, AT&T, as well as Exxon Mobil, and still leave you with billions left over.
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With one trillion dollars, you could buy 50 aircraft carriers such as the USS Ronald Reagan and outfit each of them with 45 of the newest fighter jet, the F-22 Raptor.
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A stack of $100 bills totaling $1 trillion would be 789 miles high, or 144 Mt. Everests stacked on top of one another.
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If you travel around the world at the equator 40 million times, you would travel one trillion miles.
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If you are a US taxpayer, your share of the US debt is now $130,888.
View the
US debt clock
if you dare...
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Micro Tips...
Q: It is difficult to keep my stock culture of Campylobacter alive. What is the best way to keep it viable?
A: Transfer a few isolated colonies from a non-selective plate to a
Thioglycollate with Supplements
tube (Cat. no. K23). Keep the tube continuously in the 35 degree C. incubator. Oddly enough, this will maintain a viable culture of Campy for many months.
Do you have a tip that you would like to share with thousands of MicroBytes readers?
Click here
.
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Phraseology
"Go Berserk!"
We know that to "go berserk" is to go crazy in a violent manner, but where did this term originate?
It dates back to the Norse Vikings from the first millennium who would prepare for battle by wearing their "bear sark." A sark is a type of shirt. The "berserker" fighting tradition, in which the warriors took on the spirit of bears while foaming at the mouth and gnawing the edges of their shields, is the source of the Vikings' fierce reputation. Thus, a 'Berserker' was a warrior of great strength and courage, who fought with wild ferocity. The English term "berserk" eventually showed up in the nineteenth century.
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Hardy's Mission
Here at Hardy Diagnostics, we are ever mindful of our mission to support you in the laboratory. Our ongoing goal is to make you successful in promoting excellence in healthcare.
Is there a way in which we can be of service in your laboratory?
Please let me know!
We would be honored to hear from you; after all... that's our mission!
Jay Hardy, CLS(ASCP), SM(NRCM)
Our mission:
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"We are committed to producing and distributing the finest products for the detection of microorganisms, as we partner with our laboratory customers to diagnose and prevent disease."
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Think about it...
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If you spin an oriental man, does he become disoriented?
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Why are a wise man and a wise guy opposites?
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How do I set my laser printer on stun?
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If a word was misspelled in the dictionary, how would we know?
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If you ate pasta and antipasto, would you still be hungry?
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Famous Snarky Remarks
"
Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress . . .But I repeat myself.
"
Mark Twain
American Author
1835 ~ 1910
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Wisdom to ponder...
Ludwig Van Beethoven
1770 ~ 1829
One of the word's most well known and beloved composers of all time. He continued to compose, conduct, and perform even after becoming completely deaf.
"Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy."
"Beethoven can write music, thank God, but he can do nothing else on earth."
"Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life."
"Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman."
"Tones sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes."
"Nothing is more intolerable than to have to admit to yourself your own errors."
________________
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QUICK LINKS...
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Want to receive the MicroBytes
Newsletter
at home?
CLICK HERE
Want to review past issues
of MicroBytes?
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Did you know?
Hardy Diagnostics...
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Is celebrating its 31
st
year of serving microbiologists.
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Manufactures over
3,000 products
for microbiology for you to choose from.
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Maintains seven distribution centers in the U.S. for faster turn around time to your lab.
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Is
ISO 13485
certified for the manufacture of medical devices to give you confidence in our products.
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Offers you its technical manual,
HUGO
, which contains over 4,500 pages of information regarding microbiology.
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Maintains a worldwide network of over 30
distributors.
Send an
message to the president
.
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Micro Musings..
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Rapid Test Methods
Short on time? Try out Hardy's rapid spot tests for microbial identification to make your day go faster. Just send us your address and we will mail our latest booklet on rapid methods that's full of great ideas to save you time, effort, and money.
Yes - please mail me a rapid test booklet.
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Case Histories from Barbara Fox
Can you name
that pathogen?
An elderly gentleman presented at a community hospital emergency room with symptoms of hematuria and a history of urologic problems. Among other tests, two sets of blood cultures were drawn and taken to the microbiology laboratory for incubation in their automated blood culture detection system. Both the aerobic and the anaerobic bottles of each set were flagged as positive within 36 hours of incubation. Samples from the bottles were Gram stained and sub-cultured to a Blood Agar, Chocolate Agar, and a MacConkey Agar plate (all incubated at 35-37 deg. C at 5-10% CO2); and a Brucella Agar and BBE/LKV plate (incubated anaerobically). A Gram stain of all bottles showed small pleomorphic gram positive rods resembling diptheroids.
Subcultures were examined at 24 hours. No growth was seen on the aerobic subs and pinpoint growth was observed on the anaerobic Brucella Agar plate. At 48 hours, pinpoint growth was seen on the aerobic Blood and Chocolate plates.
At 72 hours, the plates showed small non-hemolytic colonies that were catalase positive, Gram positive pleomorphic rods resembling diptheroids in their morphology. A definitive rapid commercial kit identification was performed and an ID of 99% was reached after 4 hours. Hint: the test results included a positive urea
.
Find the answer...
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Hotel Sued Over
Legionella Outbreak
The Aria Resort in Las Vegas is being sued for $338 million by eight persons claiming to have become sick with Legionnaire's disease as a result of their stay there this summer.
Nevada health authorities investigated an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease involving six guests at the posh 4,000-room Aria Resort and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.
The hotel sent letters to guests who had stayed at the Aria during a two-week period this summer, saying that high levels of the bacterium, Legionella, had been detected in several guest rooms.
In the past, air-conditioning systems, showers and hot tubs had been the suspected culprits in larger Legionnaires' outbreaks, but Nevada authorities have not yet determined the cause in this case.
Last February, 200 partygoers at Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion in Holmby Hills, California, came down with flu-like chills and high fevers thought to be due to Legionella. Health authorities later suspected the mansion's whirlpool had been to blame for the spread of the bacteria.
Legionella transmission can occur through aerosols generated by air bubbles injected in the whirlpool baths. It can also be isolated from showers and faucets.
Each year, between 8,000 and 18,000 Americans are hospitalized with Legionnaires' disease, according to the CDC. It tends to erupt during the summer and early fall months, and its fatality rate ranges from 5 to 30 percent.
The disease is caused by the bacteria,
Legionella pneumophila
, which is found naturally in the environment and can thrive in warm water, like that in hot tubs, cooling towers, hot water tanks and large plumbing systems. It can be cultured using various types of
BCYE media
, which will produce colonies within a few days that will fluoresce under a UV lamp. In addition,
several tests
are available that detect the Legionella antigen directly from urine specimens.
The disease got its name in 1976 after an outbreak that sickened 221, killing 34, at a statewide American Legion convention at the upscale Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia. It was later determined the bacteria had spread through the air-conditioning system. The negative publicity surrounding the disease forced the hotel to close that same year.
In 1977, Dr. Joseph McDade discovered a new bacterium, which was identified as the cause of the outbreak, and he named it Legionella after the first victims -- Legionnaires.
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Voice your opinion!
Should we be funding
research to clone humans?
"
There is absolutely no doubt about it, and I may not be the one that does it, but the cloned child is coming. If we intensify our efforts we can have a cloned baby within a year or two.
"
Panayiotis Zavos, PhD
,
Genetic Engineer and
Reproductive Science Researcher
Take the survey
Post your comments
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What did the MicroBytes Readers say?
Do you believe
UFO's with extraterrestrials
are real?
View the results
of last month's survey.
You may be surprised by the answers!
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Advice from the Founders...
"No nation could preserve its freedom
in the midst of continual warfare."
"Each generation should be made to bear the burden of its own wars, instead of carrying them on, at the expense of other generations."
James Madison
Fourth president of the United States
The "Father of the US Constitution"
1751 ~ 1836
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Seeing is Bel
ieving?
A wolf, a rabbit, and ???
Squint your eyes and
a third animal will appear!
_______
"Believe half of what you see
and none of what you hear."
~ Marvin Gaye
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Do all the good you can
By all the means you can
In all the ways you can
In all the places you can
At all the times you can
To all the people you can
As long as ever you can
John Wesley
1703 ~ 1791
British Theologian
and Founder of the Methodist Church
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